The differences in the old henhouses and the new is dramatic. I swear to you that the hens in the new henspa are happier, though I can't put my finger on why. Maybe it's the fact that they have light, air, and clean surroundings???
Hmmmm there's a ghost in that picture
Rooster Moe and Bitsy, one of the Naughty Girls who are almost two years old now!
They are getting whiter with age.
This is Folly, who has just come into lay. The flash made the box look bright, but it is actually very dark. The hens love the lower level of boxes that Keith built, they love the privacy. She was on five eggs. (before I took them!)
Someone checked to see if I needed help. You know we still have to clean the front room out... it has been too cold to carry things back and forth.
Contrast it with the old big henhouse...this is the feed room I had cleaned out a month ago. Now there are hens who hang out in there daily with Butch. I keep food and water down for them. The orange wire is the jerry-rigged line going over to the little henhouse, to run the light. We have GOT to get the whole henhouse re-wired this year, and the nasty drywall down and out.
There are my only two Old English Gamebirds left, the rooster Speedy, and little Suzy, who was about to go up to the rafters to roost. I ran about 20 starlings out of there today, and they emptied the outside waterers twice again.
The streaks you see all over everything are from past starling depredations. But.... they need to eat too.
I keep food up on the top of the closet so the little ones can eat if it's too cold for them to go out.
I have been looking at chicken and hatchery websites... I want to get about 10 more layers... and I'd like to try something different, like brown leghorns. Has anyone reading this ever ordered from MyPetChicken.com? Supposedly you can order smaller numbers from them. I'm a little hesitant to do it, but I am close to the Post Office and can get there immediately when they come in. Keith is going to build a brooder for me... and it's time to start thinking about it.
I have a plan for this evening... I'm going to go out in a few minutes and try to put the game cam on top of one of the posts in the big henyard, to try to catch the owl coming and going.
If I can get video, I'll share it with you tomorrow!
I took this picture at 5:30 tonight, I happened to peek out to see if Lilly wanted to come in... and look who was sitting on the fence by the gate to the henyards. He really likes the mice there, I think.
I finally figured out how to take a picture at NIGHT :-).
Unbelieveable!
Isn't he gorgeous?
Isn't he gorgeous?
